A Forgotten Gem, Salvaged

Jacob Van LunenWednesday, September 23, 2009

ast week I introduced some new uncommon lands that will surely make their way into a lot of my future decks. This week I'd like to talk about an exciting new deck for extended. Dream Salvage is a card I've wanted to play with for a long time. Unfortunately, I never really had a chance to build a deck with it because of format constraints. Luckily for me, I've just had a "Eureka!" moment, and I now have a reason to be excited about my favorite card that has never seen any competitive play.

I went into the lab and started brewing up a spicy little number. I'll start by going over the cards I found for our new deck.

Augur of Skulls: I've always been a big fan of this card. I used to pick it very high in Limited, and I even tested it in conjunction with Saffi Eriksdotter for Nationals in 2007. It's the type of card that demands your opponent to use a removal spell or suffer card disadvantage. I want to maximize the probability of my Dream Salvage not being dead, so this seemed like a very reasonable addition.

Rise // Fall:Hymn to Tourach is probably on my top five list of all Magic cards ... ever. In a deck like this you can virtually guarantee that you get full value out of it. You simply wait until your opponent misses a land drop, and then you Fall them. Again, it will be extremely difficult for your opponent's to play around this card.

Geth's Grimoire: Here's where things get exciting. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea this card even existed. I didn't play too much during Mirrodin block, and this card probably got pushed out of my brain by Rage Forger or something. This caused my "Eureka!" moment.

Raven's Crime: I want to be able to do something with all the excess land I have after drawing millions of cards. Making my opponent discard more cards when they probably only have one or two may seem a little absurd, but I feel like Raven's Crime can absolutely guarantee that my Dream Salvage does something. It can also add a much-needed punch to make the Salvage better. Imagine this scenario: Turn two Augur of Skulls, turn three sacrifice my Augur, Raven's Crime my opponent twice, cast Dream Salvage, and draw four cards. This seems good, no?

Tombstalker: I wanted a nice and big fatty-boom-boom that I could close the game with. Tombstalker seemed like the best fit. This deck will end up with a lot of cards in the 'yard very fast, and Tombstalker seems like it's probably the best way to take advantage of this.

Lightning Bolt: The best one-mana spell in any non-Eternal format. Yes please! I want this deck to have enough removal to deal with whatever threats sneak under the barrage of discard. Lightning Bolt is certainly the best one-mana removal spell available in our colors.

Sulfurous Springs: A lot of people may be surprised that I included a rare land in this week's deck. Building on a Budget hasn't usually been a home to these except in circumstances involving Mosswort Bridges or something like that. With the introduction of the new Magic 2010 lands, however, the old Ice Age and Apocalypse painlands are in less demand. Extended players will probably be clutching their new fetch lands and Ravnica block "shock lands" until someone pries them from their cold dead hands. This gives me an opening to play strong rare dual lands without breaking the bank. The only rare in this deck thus far is Tombstalker, so these really don't push the deck into the realm of unaffordable.

The deck fared pretty well against my friend's casual decks, which are pretty good for the casual realm. I decided to take the deck to work in the tournament practice room on Magic Online for a round. Before I did this, I needed a sideboard. I definitely need something to bring in against Affinity, and I want to make sure my deck can deal with Vedalken Shackles. I decided that Shattering Spree was probably the best anti-artifact options. I wanted more spot removal for decks like Elves! so I decided a few Darkblast would also work well. Lastly, I wanted to prevent my opponents from doing something with the cards they discard, so I decided on a Relic of Progenitus. It may seem odd to include Relic in a deck with Tombstalker, but I can always cast my Tombstalker before I pop my Relic. Here's the finished sideboard:

I'm really happy I got to play against this archetype. It gives me an opportunity to praise one of the better PTQ players in the NYC area. Adam has been posting Top 8 finishes for the past few years, and his first PTQ win is probably due in the near future. He did very well last Extended season with a blue deck that eschewed cards like Spellstutter Sprite for creatures like Kitchen Finks and powerful spells like Cryptic Command.

I mulligan to five here and realize how weak this deck is on the mull. He comes out with a Kitchen Finks and has ample countermagic for all my answers. Once the board has settled he sticks a Tarmogoyf, and I can't get a removal spell through his countermagic. The game ends quickly and quietly.

I really enjoyed playing this deck. If I was going to play it without budget constraints, I would probably splash green for Tarmogoyf and have a more reliable mana base. I think Geth's Grimoire is a fun card that will find its way into a lot of my casual decks in the future. Shoot me an email if you have any questions or want to see something in particular over the course of the next few weeks.